Actor and film director Ku Hye-sun has transformed into a venture entrepreneur. CEO Ku founded "Studio Ku Hye-sun" in July last year and jumped into the hair roller market.
Questioning the round shape of hair rollers, CEO Ku began developing a roller that can be folded, unfolded, and rolled into a circle, and obtained a patent in 2021. With help from researchers at KAIST starting last year, she improved the technology's completeness, finished product development, and on the 10th launched it in Korea under the name "KOOROLL."
KOOROLL applies a high-performance polymer composite material formed with a wave (wrinkle) mold structure so it can be easily unfolded and folded flat, then finished with silicone laminating. The size can be freely adjusted as needed, maximizing portability. By applying a minimal amount of plastic only to specific parts of the Velcro, it reduced plastic usage by about 80% or more compared with conventional hair rollers.
CEO Ku debuted in 2002 as a model for the "Sambo Computer Slim PC" commercial. She then rose to stardom with standout performances in "Nonstop 5," "Seodongyo," "Boys Over Flowers," "The King and I," and "Pure in Heart."
The small frame of being an actor could not contain her talent. Beyond her main profession, CEO Ku established herself as a "multitainer," crossing into directing, singer-songwriter work, and painting. In 2010, she won the Topic Award at the Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia for "The Cheerful Caretaker," which she directed, and in 2022 she received the Audience Award at the same festival for "Dark Yellow."
CEO Ku, who had halted her studies due to a busy schedule, re-enrolled in the Department of Film at Sungkyunkwan University in 2020 and graduated at the top of her class in Feb. 2024. In Sept. of the same year, she entered the Graduate School of Science Journalism at KAIST, and this Jan., she graduated early after a year and a half.
On why she suddenly transformed into a venture founder, she smiled and said, "Going to KAIST became a new turning point in my life." ChosunBiz met CEO Ku on the 9th to hear about her motivation for starting a business and her plans ahead. The following is a Q&A with CEO Ku.
—How did going to KAIST become a turning point in your life?
"Entering KAIST gave me the opportunity to meet many good connections. Meeting KAIST professor Lee Hae-shin, the head of 'Polyphenol Factory,' which developed the anti-hair loss shampoo Gravity, also became the starting point for my venture. I showed Professor Lee a sample of the patented hair roller in April last year, and suddenly got a proposal to collaborate. Professor Lee was also researching a hair roller that could create synergy with the Gravity shampoo. With this as a starting point, I was able to make prototypes and raise the quality with help from KAIST researchers. At first, I didn't even think about doing a business, but with Professor Lee and the KAIST researchers' help, I started."
—You already received a product patent in 2021.
"One of the graduation requirements at Sungkyunkwan University was obtaining a patent. To meet the requirement, I applied for a KOOROLL patent in 2020 and completed registration in 2021. I had long thought that since hair rollers are round, it would be convenient for portability if they could be folded and unfolded. Unlike circular rollers, I considered a flat rectangular form. I also thought that making a Velcro tape-type roller without plastic would make it eco-friendly. Existing rollers are processed with more than 90% plastic, but KOOROLL uses less than 5% microplastics."
—You said you agonized over setting the product price.
"Hair rollers are plastic-based, so prices are not high. Most are under the 5,000-won range. Because we used a special material that can be folded and unfolded and that fixes shape instead of plastic, it was hard to lower manufacturing costs. Since we outsourced up to the fourth processing step, the cost burden is fairly large. For now, we set the domestic ex-factory price at 13,000 won, but we plan to offer lower prices through discount policies. For example, on Naver Smart Store, we plan to sell it at 11,050 won, 15% off. Our initial lot is only 100,000 units, but if the business expands and we increase production volume or move from outsourcing to in-house production, we think we can reduce manufacturing costs further."
—You said you received business proposals from overseas. What about investment attraction?
"We received business proposals from Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan, and China. According to a Research and Markets report, China's hair care market is estimated to have grown at a compound annual rate of 8.3% from 2020 to 2025. We are also considering entering overseas markets such as China going forward. We have not yet secured any investment. It has only been half a year since we started the business, so we are in the stage of attracting investment."
—You included a QR code with in-house content in the product.
"I wanted to combine product and content to change the consumption experience itself. KOOROLL buyers can watch a 66-minute 'new age concert' video via a QR-based image card inside the product. I rearranged 24 tracks of my own music by the seasonal flow of spring, summer, fall, and winter, and enhanced completeness by combining poetry readings and video scenes. While we start centered on content I made, in the long term I want to build a structure that can distribute other creators' short works as well. I think the method of encountering a short film during the 15–20 minutes when you unroll is sufficiently marketable. I want to create an environment favorable to creators with lower fees than established platforms. For consumers, I think it can offer a brief daily viewing experience, and for creators, a new exposure channel."
—You even built the "Studio Ku Hye-sun" building yourself.
"I took part in the design and led the construction and completion. For this, I also took architectural civil engineering classes at KAIST. At first, I didn't really understand what was being said in class, but I tried to learn. The site for the building was a triangular plot, and the land price was relatively cheaper than nearby areas. That was because it was close to Jeongneung, where cultural heritage could be unearthed. Normally construction ends in about three months, but it took a year. We had to keep digging underground to check for cultural assets. There was a risk that if cultural properties were discovered while digging, we would not be able to proceed with construction."
—You recently graduated early from KAIST graduate school.
"From the time I entered KAIST, I fixed my master's thesis topic, and I passed the thesis review in three semesters. I attended classes only in the first semester at the Seoul Dogok campus, and from the second semester I moved to and lived at the main Daejeon campus. Although the Graduate School of Science Journalism runs on a weekend system, I went down to the main campus and attended school five days a week on Mon., Wed., Fri., Sat., and Sun. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I took management classes for venture founding."
—The Copykiller channel's plagiarism check reportedly showed your master's thesis had a plagiarism rate below 1%.
"The reason the rate is low is because I studied a new theory. The title of my master's thesis is "The fifth wall: an era of one-person media formed by re-projection." The existing theory of the "fourth wall" explains a traditional media phenomenon, referring to the invisible wall assumed to exist between actors and the audience in theater, film, and drama. It means the audience 'looks' beyond that wall, while the actors behave as if they cannot see the audience. The fifth wall I studied is defined as two-way interaction between creators and viewers via comments, live streams, and communities. I studied the real-time reactions (projection) to content posted by one-person media and the effects of the subsequent re-reactions (re-projection)."
—What is the most important value in your life? How does it sustain you?
"Right now it is 'self-reliance.' While acting is a profession that is chosen, I want to build my own system and platform that is self-reliant by combining scholarship, creation, and business. I believe that the power of that self-reliance will ultimately become the foundation for protecting my beloved family and people."